23 Books for Counterculture Conservatives, Tea Party Occultists, and Capitalist Wizards
I guess it’s to be expected – that the cool grew up to be square. Hell, even evangelicals are hipper than liberals now. (I used the word Hell deliberately, even though it isn’t cool.)
Now here’s the thing: Liberals are beginning to realize they’re not hip anymore. They won’t admit it, but they do. Witness Obama’s behavior with the press. He’s sweating like Nixon – and that’s definitely not hip. (On second thought, Nixon was finally hipper than Obama.)
And Jay Carney? Would you call him hip? And what about Biden? Has there ever been a soul so square?
What makes modern liberalism the mess that it is today is that it is mainly composed of people who desperately wanted to be cool in high school – wanted to be Abbie Hoffman or Eldridge Cleaver – but never were. Their longing – this need to be Abbie – has clouded their thinking and their ability to perceive reality, placing us all in a mess along with them.
Meanwhile, Bob Dylan became a conservative.
– PJ Media CEO Roger L. Simon, June 19, 2012
“He’s forgetting what his own positions are, and he’s betting that you will, too. I mean, he’s changing up so much and backtracking and sidestepping, we’ve gotta … name this condition that he’s going through… I think it’s called Romnesia,”
– President Barack Obama, October 19, 2012
Of course we’re down to the final months of the president’s term, as presidents…
(LAUGHTER)
…as President Obama surveys the Waldorf banquet room with everyone in white tie and refinery, you have to wonder what he’s thinking. So little time, so much to redistribute.
(LAUGHTER) ….
And by the way in — in the spirit of Sesame Street, the president’s remarks tonight are brought to you but the letter ‘O’ and the number $16 trillion.
(LAUGHTER)
– GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, October 18, 2012
*
Previously at PJ Lifestyle we’ve discussed the phenomenon of the “crunchy conservative,” the individual who embraces politics and values commonly associated with “the Right” while living a more natural, “hippie” lifestyle stereotyped as a monopoly of those on “the Left.”
But libertarians who prefer raw milk and organic food aren’t the only oddballs smashing the stereotype of what a “Bitter Clinger” actually looks like. Here are three more political-cultural hybrids:
Counterculture Conservative
Someone with classical liberal politics and outside-the-mainstream art tastes, lifestyle choices, diet, fashion sensibilities, sexual preferences, or religious beliefs. Often times this mindset comes as a result of a political shift to the Right later in life.
Archetypal example: New Media troublemaker and publisher, the late Andrew Breitbart (whose memoir appears second on the list.)
Tea Party Occultist
One who identifies with both the founding fathers’ Enlightenment politics and Masonic spiritual values — and perceives the relationship between the two. Religious Liberty requires a government based in Political Liberty and a military to defend it from barbarian idolaters who would take away both. Alternative definition: one who identifies with both the “Right-Wing” Tea Party movement and the Right-Hand path of the Western Mystery Tradition, adequately defined here by Wikipedia:
The Right-Hand Path is commonly thought to refer to magical or religious groups which adhere to a certain set of characteristics:
(See the rest of the Wikipedia entry for a list of various religions and mystical groups characterized as Right-Hand.) Even within the magical world those on “the Right” cherish the Rule of Law, while those on “the Left” embrace anarchy.
Archetypal example: James Wasserman, author, book designer, and a “founding father” of the modern revivals of the mystical secret society the Ordo Templi Orientis and its religion Thelema. (Wasserman’s new memoir begins the list and four more of his books also appear.)
Capitalist Wizard
One who understands the magical abilities of the free market to create value, wealth, and prosperity out of nothing but hard work, great ideas, and good luck. In free societies you really can wave your wand and turn lead into gold. All wealth begins when the entrepreneurs who will someday create it first dream and then put pen to paper to lay out their plan. Writing creates wealth. The ridiculous level of comfort in our society today — our government can afford to pay for the luxury of a cell phone for “poor” people — could happen because hundreds of years ago men wrote that the pursuit of happiness was an innate right.
Archetypal Example: Walt Disney. What began as imaginations in his head and sketches of a mouse would one day become a billion dollar multimedia empire with DisneyLand — our Mecca — as the permanent celebratory reminder of how the imagination can manifest mental and spiritual wealth into the material world.
One can note that these categories each correlate with one of the three values of the American Trinity identified and defined by Dennis Prager in his book Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph. Counterculture conservatives embody Liberty, Tea Party Occultists emphasize In God We Trust, and the Capitalist Wizards live E. Pluribus Unum in both theory and practice.
These three categories also have their natural opponents, of whom more will be said later in the list when appropriate:
- Counterculture Conservatives Vs Cultural Marxists.
- Tea Party Occultists Vs Nazi Mystics.
- Capitalist Wizards Vs Corporatist Sorcerers.
My intent with this list is to compile an annotated bibliography of sorts — a collection of books on a variety of subjects and genres that when put side by side can manifest fresh connections and new ways of looking at the world so we as individuals can solve our problems and live happier, more fulfilling lives.
Future editions will include additional categories and authors, as well as expanded entries for the books and authors already included. (Please leave suggestions of who should appear in future updates. And if you leave an especially strong comment then I might include it in the next edition.) This first list comprises only a bare bones beginning for defining these three emerging traditions. Perhaps 100 more titles await in my mind for potential inclusion and with input from PJ Lifestyle’s readers that number can grow.
Here are the various sections of the list for your browsing convenience so you can jump to the subjects or authors who are of most interest. However, I’ve still written this extended article (really more of a free e-book before the election) with the traditional intent that it should make the most sense read beginning to end… that is, if it ends up making any sense at all — which is not something I can guarantee… Caveat Emptor…
Part I, Autobiographies: Forging Counterculture Conservatism In The Center of the Fire
- Occult author James Wasserman in the context of New Media publishers Roger L. Simon and the late Andrew Breitbart.
Part II, History: The Temple of Solomon and the Foundations of Western Civilization
- Abraham, The Patriarch as Original Counterculturalist.
- Also: the truth about the Muslim occultists who tried to separate Islam from Shariah and their hidden role in shaping Western Freedom.
Part III, Polemics: A Moonchild of Aleister Crowley and Ann Coulter
- “Freedom is a two-edged sword of which one edge is liberty and the other, responsibility. Both edges are exceedingly sharp and the weapon is not suited to casual, cowardly or treacherous hands.” — Jack Parsons…
Part IV, American Exceptionalism: The Secrets Embedded Within The Fourth Great Western Religion
- The Tarot cards hidden in Washington D.C.’s architecture.
- Why America really is a nation of crazy people.
- Also: meet Ronald Reagan’s favorite occultist.
Part V, Media: Douglas Rushkoff and Programming Internet Magic
- The Bible as R-rated Counterculture Comic Book For Adults.
- What’s the difference between capitalism and corporatism?
Part VI, Science: Howard Bloom and the Modern Alchemical Marriage of Secularism and Spirituality
- What does it mean to understand Mother Nature as “a bloody bitch?”
- And what does it look like when an atheist proves that God exists not as a noun, but as the Kabbalists always said, a Verb?
My first reaction to the list is – wtf?
Depending on whatever it is that is supposed to be the unifying idea here, I might suggest anything from “Futureshock” (a bit dated by of the right genre, I think) to “Lord of the Rings”, and possibly other scifi/fantasy. Also, as object lessons rather than theoretic tomes, “The Music Man” and “Animal House”.
It doesn’t seem to be *quite* limited to purely occult plus political works, but I’ll be diddled what does connect the whole list.
It’s already probably the longest entry I’ve ever seen on PJM.
Here’s the unifying idea:
“My intent with this list is to compile an annotated bibliography of sorts — a collection of books on a variety of subjects and genres that when put side by side can manifest fresh connections and new ways of looking at the world so we as individuals can solve our problems and live happier, more fulfilling lives.”
All of them, or at least a nice chunk of them, also seem to be written by people who in the final analysis are uncomfortable with pure ideologies. This makes them “independent” books, too, which ties into your theme of improving one’s life and taking charge.
just a note: the angel and the demon on donald ducks shoulders? are from the Shepherd of Hermas. The Shepherd of Hermas is a non-canonical, but still recognized as Christian text from the early fathers of the church. They,too, are wrestling with truth, and the divine, in the same piece of real estate.
the shepherd of hermas, and most of the early church fathers are more well-known in the orthodox church. this would be greek orthodox, russian orthodox, and so on.
as well, the pre-nicene council churches- the syriac, and so on- would sound similar but not the same in their formulations. these churches suffered persecutions before rome even became a christian empire.
st anthony shows up mostly as reference for odd painters. his writings are still published. you might like. his writings and his biography- the biographer was trying to sweeten him up.
for pure oddness, really, you cannot go wrong with an orthodox church.
Like the concept, but this is incomprehensible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-prime
Dave,
You have made 2 of the first 5 comments. They are answers to comments to the effect that you have produced 19 pages of GodKnowsWhat.
Your first is, “Here is the unifying idea (delivered in gibberish).”
Your second, in answer to the word “incomprehensible,” is a link to a bizarre (is that your purpose?) Wikipedia page.
Are you attempting to communicate?
And succeeding with some of us. Dave is pointing to Korzybski’s notion that the state of being verb is a semantic trap: aclay1 says it “is” incomprehensible — but then someone else might come along who finds it perfectly comprehensible. So the assertion that it “is” incomprehensible is mistaken, but a statement like “I find this incomprehensible right now” would not be.
Correct. Many thanks, Charlie.
E’ is brilliant.
I am happy to read that Korzybski was an admirer of Wittgenstein’s. Their work appears to complements one another nicely.
RObert Heinlein, interestingly, was very involved with General Semantics, and at least ran in the same circles in LA as the OTO, Golden Dawn, and such.
It’s fun to see Crowley get his day here. So many of the occultists I know, and many of the liberals too, tend to think of his ideology as nothing but “yeah man, we can whatever we feel like.” In reality he had many conservative leanings, albeit coming to the same conclusions through alternative pathways.
And he was always a huge proponent of setting goals and working very hard to achieve them, not just waiting for someone else to take care of you. My favorite quote is another one from Magick Without Tears where Crowley was admonishing a student for being lazy and coming up with all sorts of excuses: “To advance—that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Dear sister, if you would but Work! Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn’t matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue.”
Anyway, fascinating and eclectic mix of books, and I look forward to catching up on all of them, thought at the pace I’m going it’ll take me five years. Thanks for putting it together!
I may never finish this 19-paged article, but if nothing else I must note my thoughts on the statue of Disney & Mouse: a caption reading, “Someday, Mickey, all of this will be yours.”
Of related interest, there is a campaign to vote for Aleister Crowley for President going on this year:
“We realize that Aleister Crowley is dead. And British. And, moreover, not running for office. Nevertheless, we believe that the most effective vote you can cast in 2012 is one for Aleister Crowley.”
More at http://ac2012.com
Anyone who’s really interested in this stuff should read the Illuminatus trilogy. Bob Shea and Bob Wilson were both friends of mine, and they new amazing amounts of this stuff.
I believe Antti P. Balk’s latest, “Balderdash: A Treatise on Ethics” also covers many of these same topics (and people):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/9525700402/
I’m sorry, this is just silly.
Yeah, that was my thought, too.
But, don’t cede the field (don’t seed the feeled), because they’ve been writing in stone again, since the early 90s –and that one-world thingie is immune to negative results. Our world in terms of time is a light skiff running on the surface of a very deep pagan sea.
“They have failed to reveal one new truth, but have succeeded in repeating all the old errors,” so said William Blake, a countercultural icon, about the followers of another, Swedenborg.
Counter cultures come and they go, or as “firesign say” there’s a seeker born every minute.
As a veteren of the ashram industrial complex, I have learned there is an inherent contradiction in the “commoditization of cool,” or huckstering the Path.
Occultism is escapist obscurantism; flashlit faces in the pretend dark.
Everyone believes something but I believe you can learn more about “counter culture” from the Beatles and the Dead.
Or Orwell and Burgess.
Stay skeptical, my friends.
This was a thought-provoking and meaty article. I can see why it might be too much for some, but I enjoyed it.
Pushing people out of their comfort zone once in a while is a good thing. If I hadn’t been pushed a couple of times, I’d still be the kneejerk liberal my parents and teachers programmed me to be.
Good job, Mr. Swindle
Thank you very much. I look forward to more of your feedback as the series continues.
More drivel from Swindle. Get a life.
As an atheist and a fan of indie rock and Wes Anderson and Akira Kurosawa movies, along with being a video game and comic book nerd (most of my wardrobe is t-shirts advertising either superheroes or old 8-bit nintendo games), I think I classify as counterculture conservative. Although, mostly I’d just refer to myself as a skeptical nerdservative.
Yes, you qualify. Welcome. Perhaps in the future I’ll have to add books for Nerdservatives. Any suggestions?